An article by Sophie McDonald

When you live in the south, you hear the word mercy a lot.

Lately though, I’ve been enthralled with the Lord’s extravagant mercy… and it all started with my sin.

For the past two weeks it’s as if God has ripped off one layer of my heart after another going, “Oh, look at that! You didn’t know that was there, did you?” Revealing pride, sin and insecurities I didn’t have a clue existed.

This has been (and still is) a season of exposure and repentance.

And through it all God has taught me more about His mercy than I ever dreamed.

It’s been painful and hard and challenging and has served to increase my joy in Christ like nobody’s business as He keeps bringing me back to the splendid, enchanting, glorious, undeserved, amazing mercy of God.

Mercy… why He’s exposing my heart.
Mercy… why I’m not in hell right now.
Mercy… why I have the friends He’s given.
Mercy… why we have the Holy Spirit.
Mercy… why God loves us enough to chastise us and expose our sin.
Mercy… why He’s not angry or condemning to His children.
Mercy… why He crushed Jesus in my place.
Mercy… why He looks on me with love and compassion.

According to Easton’s Bible Dictionary:

Mercy = Compassion for the miserable.

By the atoning sacrifice of Christ a way is open for the exercise of mercy toward the sons of men, in harmony with the demands of truth and righteousness.

In Christ, mercy and truth meet together.

Does that not overwhelm you with thankfulness for our flawless Finisher of faith?!

Ephesians 2:1-7 –

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

But God,

being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us,even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

John Calvin on Ephesians 2:4 –

“There is no other life than that which is breathed into us by Christ: so that we begin to live only when we are ingrafted into Him, and enjoy the same life with Himself.

“On this ground he praises the mercy of God, meaning by its riches, that it had been poured out in a singularly large and abundant manner.

“The whole of our salvation is here ascribed to the mercy of God.”

Thank You, Lord, for Your mercy.
Thank You, Lord, for Jesus so that now we can live in Your mercy.
Thank You for Your love that motivated Your movements, and for the supply of Jesus’ blood and holy compassion that never runs dry.

My name from the palms of Your hands
Eternity will not erase
Impressed on Your heart it remains
In marks of indelible grace
Yes I, to the end will endure
Until I bow down at Your throne
Forever and always secure
Forever and always secure
Forever and always secure
A debtor to mercy alone-Augustus M. Toplady, A Debtor to Mercy Alone